ESPN Report: The Big Ten hasn’t had conversations with Florida State about conference expansion
Despite desperately wanting to get out of the ACC, a recent report said that Florida State hasn’t been targeted by the Big Ten for conference expansion.
Earlier this month, the Big Ten fired its latest salvo in the conference expansion turf wars, raiding the Pac-whatever to nab Oregon and Washington. This power move from the Big Ten came after days of reporting that the conference wasn’t going to expand anytime soon.
Bam. It happened. And the Big Ten once again changed the landscape for college football.
All of this led to more reporting and speculation about if the Big Ten would expand further and add two more teams to get to 20 members. A host of programs were thrown out as linked to the Big Ten, none of which have substantially materialized.
Several ACC programs have been rumored to be Big Ten targets, including Florida State. But this week, an ESPN.com report from Andrea Adelson poured cold water on that front.
In her report on the status of conference expansion as it relates to the ACC, Adelson dropped this not-so-little tidbit:
“But a source with knowledge of the discussions said the Big Ten did not have serious conversations about adding Florida State, and its top priority remains Notre Dame.”
Truth be told, Florida State never made sense as a target for the Big Ten. While they are certainly attractive for football and basketball, there is one glaring issue with Florida State that will hold them back: AAU membership.
Florida State isn’t a part of the AAU and the Big Ten only accepts member institutions.
The ACC programs that make the most sense for the Big Ten, were the conference to expand further, are Miami (a recent AAU member) and North Carolina (also an AAU member). Both would bring national brands and legitimate television markets to the equation as well as strong non-revenue sports where the Big Ten could use a lift.
All of this means that the more things change with regard to the landscape around the ACC, the more it stays the same. At least, until, it doesn’t anymore.
Also, check out this good video recap from John Kurtz about everything going on with conference expansion.
